Pages

Thursday, December 23, 2010

I'm Jewish so I don't make Christmas cookies. But over Thanksgiving, when I received the new Baked Explorations cookbook as a gift from my mom, I could't resist trying out the chocolate gingerbread cookies, with a bit of a twist. You could certainly make this recipe using regular gingerbread man cookie cutters, sure, but instead I decided to make some fun shoe cookies using my shoe-shaped cookie cutter. The end result looked quite cool as expected, but also tasted delicious. So, these cookies are great for the holidays, but also as a girl's night treat. I also mixed in a few moose shaped cookies as well.

I am in Mexico on vacation right now, so there will be less posts over the holiday. But, never fear because I did set a couple things to post (including this very post) for while I am away. Wishing everyone who reads A Kitchen In Brooklyn all the best for all the things you wish for in 2011!

To make the cookies, combine the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. In your stand electric mixer, beat the butter and shortening at medium speed until smooth. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy, for about two minutes.

Add the egg and beat until incorporated. Then, beat in the molasses (which smells horrible all by itself, but don't worry as it will smell great in the end) and melted chocolate. Add the flour mixture in three parts, beating between additions. Divide the dough into three parts and chill for about two hours.

Preheat the oven to 350. Roll out the disks of dough, about 1/4 inch thick (I was lucky to have my mom around, as we made this over thanksgiving so she helped out with this), and cut the dough with your desired cookie cutters - I used a cute pair of shoe cookie cutters. Bake the cookies at 350 for seven minutes until the tops are dry. Allow the cookies to cook for five minutes before transferring to the rack, and allow to cool completely before glazing.

To make the icing, combine the confectioner's sugar, egg white and lemon juice until smooth. Decorate the cookies as desired, either using a brush to glaze or a frosting bag. Enjoy!

Nice touch with the glaze. One of my acolytes and I did a chocolate ginger cookie for our Christmas party and she had this wacky Siamese twin cookie cutters we used for some of them that did not appear on the table but were simply eaten for "testing" the recipe.

All images, text and artwork on this site are copyright protected (c), unless otherwise noted, and may not be used or copied without expres consent, although you are welcome to link to this site, just give appropriate credit for the content. Any opinions expressed on the site are those of the individual writers.